Mayan Pumpkin Hot Chocolate Cocktail

Everyone (maybe not everyone) knows that Chocolate came from the Mayans… but it’s a bit of an under exaggeration the food that our culture has come to embrace had an even more enthusiastic fanbase in ancient Mexico. Americans love chocolate so much we decorate with it, put it in our breakfast cereal, and even have facials starring it- but the Mayans (and eventually Aztecs) revered chocolate so much it was a cornerstone of their economy, using it for trade the same way we spend money.

For our recipe, Jeff mixed the Mayan Chocolate tradition with the very American obsession of seasonal pumpkin drinks. Mix them together, add some alcohol, and we definitely had a winner on our hands! You might be wondering why we call this particular cocoa mix “Mayan Coco”? That’s because this seasoning is based on the legacy of mixing chocolate with chiles in a similar way the first cocoa drink was enjoyed (“Xocolatl”).

Preparation for our drink is pretty easy and straight forward- beginning with everything but the pumpkin and alcohol, whisk together all the other ingredients until all the sugar and salt is dissolved so it can distribute evenly before you add your pumpkin (if you’re buying canned, check that it’s pure pumpkin and not “pumpkin pie mix”). Once the pumpkin is combined, we run into Mexico yet again! Chef Jeff used the original Kahlua (coffee flavor) liquor, but there are rumors that there are seasonal pumpkin spice varieties of this liquor as well… we just couldn’t get our hands on one. It’s important to wait to add your Kahlua until you take the drink off the heat, so you don’t accidentally cook off all that booziness we’re adding. Garnish to your hearts content (We did a little whip cream and a cinnamon stick, of course) and welcome that warming pumpkin spiciness into your heart. Looking for more pumpkin recipes now that you’ve open that can of tinned pumpkin? Make some Pumpkin Muffins!

HELPFUL HINT: To make our recipe vegan, you could opt to use a non-dairy variety of coffee or pumpkin spice liquor and use a raw sugar. Our Mayan Coco blend uses Demerara Sugar, which is not a processed sugar.